-# youtube-dl
+% YOUTUBE-DL(1)
-## USAGE
-youtube-dl [options] url [url...]
+# NAME
+youtube-dl
-## DESCRIPTION
+# SYNOPSIS
+**youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
+
+# DESCRIPTION
**youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
2.x (x being at least 6), and it is not platform specific. It should work in
your Unix box, in Windows or in Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
-## OPTIONS
+# OPTIONS
-h, --help print this help text and exit
--version print program version and exit
-U, --update update this program to latest version
-i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
-r, --rate-limit LIMIT download rate limit (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
-R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
- -b, --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k) (default
+ --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k) (default
is 1024)
- --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size
+ --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
+ default, the buffer size is automatically resized
+ from an initial value of SIZE.
--dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
+ --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
--list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
would handle
-### Video Selection:
+ Video Selection:
--playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
--playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
--match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
caseless sub-string)
--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
-### Filesystem Options:
+ Filesystem Options:
-t, --title use title in file name
- -l, --literal use literal title in file name
+ --id use video ID in file name
+ -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
-A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
- -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(stitle)s to get the
+ -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get the
title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
- %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented
- number, %(ext)s for the filename extension,
- %(upload_date)s for the upload date (YYYYMMDD), and
- %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to
- stdout.
+ %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
+ different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
+ incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
+ extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
+ (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
+ (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
+ and %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to
+ stdout. Can also be used to download to a different
+ directory, for example with -o '/my/downloads/%(upl
+ oader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
+ --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
+ avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
-a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
-w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
-c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
--write-description write video description to a .description file
--write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
-### Verbosity / Simulation Options:
+ Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-q, --quiet activates quiet mode
-s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write anything
to disk
--console-title display progress in console titlebar
-v, --verbose print various debugging information
-### Video Format Options:
+ Video Format Options:
-f, --format FORMAT video format code
--all-formats download all available video formats
--prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one is
--srt-lang LANG language of the closed captions to download
(optional) use IETF language tags like 'en'
-### Authentication Options:
+ Authentication Options:
-u, --username USERNAME account username
-p, --password PASSWORD account password
-n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
-### Post-processing Options:
- --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
+ Post-processing Options:
+ -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", or "wav";
best by default
- --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio bitrate specification, 128k by
- default
+ --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert a
+ value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a
+ specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
-k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
processing; the video is erased by default
+ --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
+ processed files are overwritten by default
+
+# CONFIGURATION
+
+You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as `--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or `~/.local/config/youtube-dl.conf`.
+
+# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
+
+The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
-## FAQ
+ - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
+ - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
+ - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
+ - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
+ - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
+ - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
+ - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
+ - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
+
+The current default template is `%(id)s.%(ext)s`, but that will be switchted to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` (which can be requested with `-t` at the moment).
+
+In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title:
+
+ $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
+ youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
+ $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
+ youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
+
+# FAQ
### Can you please put the -b option back?
youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
-## COPYRIGHT
+### ERROR: unable to download video ###
+
+youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
+
+### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
+
+The error
+
+ File "youtube-dl", line 2
+ SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\93' ...
+
+means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
+
+### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
+
+Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
+
+### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
+
+To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
+
+# COPYRIGHT
youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
-## BUGS
+# BUGS
Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
Please include:
* Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
+* If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
* The output of `youtube-dl --version`
* The output of `python --version`
* The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
+
+For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
projects / youtube-dl / blobdiff